Thursday, October 20, 2016

The Gray House Ghost, Part 2 (New Short Story)

Here is Part 2 of The Gray House Ghost. If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can find it here.

The Gray House Ghost

By Catherine Mesick

“Rachel?”
said a voice in a whisper.

Rachel
shielded her eyes against the glare. “Who wants to know?”

The
flashlight moved so that it was pointing upward, and Rachel could see a tall,
lanky frame outlined against the light.

“Rachel,
it’s me—Mike.”

“Mike?”
Rachel said. “What are you doing here?”

“The
same as you,” Mike whispered. “I’m looking for Justin. And you might want to
keep your voice down.”

“Why?”

“Just
trust me.”

“Fine,”
Rachel whispered.

“Have
you had any luck yet?” Mike asked.

“I’m
pretty sure he’s up in the attic,” Rachel replied. “There’s a light on up
there—you probably saw it as you drove up.”

Mike
hesitated. “Yeah, I saw it.”

“You
don’t think it’s him?”

“I
don’t know,” Mike said. “I hope it is.”

Rachel
turned on her flashlight and started up the stairs again. “Well, we’d better go
look.”

The
two of them climbed up through the dark until they reached the last flight of
stairs. Then they climbed the few steps up to the topmost level. The attic door
stood before them with a thin sliver of light showing out from underneath it.

Rachel
reached out for the old-fashioned crystal doorknob, and Mike moved suddenly to
stop her.

“Wait!”
he hissed.

But
she was already turning the handle, and the door to the attic swung open
easily.

Inside
the room was a lantern sitting in the middle of the floor. Otherwise, the room
was empty.

Rachel
and Mike stepped into the room.

“Do
you think he was in here?” Rachel whispered.

“Maybe,”
Mike replied.

“You
don’t seem very surprised to not see him here,” Rachel said. “What did you
think was going on up here? Did you think it was pranksters?”

“No.”
Mike seemed oddly reluctant to go on.

“Mike,
what’s going on in this house?” Rachel said.

“You
don’t know?”

“No,
I don’t.”

Mike
cast a nervous glance over at the doorway. The attic landing yawned black and
cavernous beyond it.

“Do
you mind if I close the door?” Mike asked. “I don’t like the idea of someone
sneaking up on us.”

“If
it makes you feel better,” Rachel said.

Mike
shut the door and then sat down by the lantern.

Rachel
sat down opposite him. “I’m guessing you have some idea what’s going on with my
brother.”

Mike
ran his hands over his face and then looked over at Rachel.

“Okay,”
he said. “So you haven’t heard about the disappearances?”

“No,”
she said.

“It’s
about ten people so far,” Justin said. “And they’ve all disappeared into this
house.”

“What?”
Rachel said. “That’s not possible. I would have heard if ten people had gone
missing from our town.”

“They
haven’t gone missing from our town,” Justin replied. “They’ve gone missing from
all over the country. Ghost hunters from all over have come to investigate this
house. And they haven’t been heard from since then.”

“I
think I would have heard about that, too.”

“Not
necessarily,” Mike said. “They disappeared one at a time. And no one can prove they came to this house—after all,
no bodies have ever been found. We just know this is where they were headed
when they disappeared.”

“Then
where are their cars?” Rachel asked. “If they came out here and disappeared,
their cars should be here at least. There’s no other way to get out here.”

“There’s
the spirit portal.”

“The
spirit portal?”

“It’s
by the old well in the town square. All you have to do is walk through the
portal in the right frame of mind, and you’ll be transported here. And you need
to know it’s there in the first place.”

“I
see,” Rachel said.

“And
all the investigators parked at their hotels in town and then walked over to
the spirit portal. Their cars were found abandoned at the hotels.”

“And
you believe a spirit portal is a real thing?” Rachel asked.

“Of
course it is,” Mike said. “How else do you think all those people got over here
without cars?”

“Why
weren’t they seen?” Rachel asked.

“What?”

“Why
weren’t they seen disappearing into thin air?” Rachel asked. “If people
carrying ghost-hunting equipment walked up to the old well in the town square
and then just vanished, wouldn’t somebody notice that?”

Mike
sighed softly. “That’s part of how spirit portals work. There’s always an area
of localized distortion around them. They actually generate a channel that
enters the spirit realm—you travel through that to the next human world
destination. A lot of people are frightened and disoriented by spiritual
energy—even when it’s positive. So they just tend not to look. And like I said,
there’s localized distortion—and that affects human senses, too.”

“And
what would create something like that?”

“Strong
emotion,” Mike said.

“I
see,” Rachel said again. “So you’re saying ten ghost hunters—”

“Paranormal
investigators.”

“Paranormal
investigators—with all their equipment walked up to a well and were magically—”

“Spiritually.”

“Spiritually transported to the Gray
House,” Rachel said.

“Yes,”
Mike said.

“And
I assume my brother took that route also?”

“Well,
yes,” Mike said. “The town square isn’t that far from the high school. And he
also didn’t want anyone to know that he was coming here.”

“Why
not?” Rachel asked.

Mike
turned his head suddenly.

“Wait!
Did you hear that?” he hissed.

Their
voices had begun to drift up in volume, and Mike quickly brought his back down
to a hoarse whisper.

“I
didn’t hear anything,” Rachel whispered back.

“I’d
better go check.”

Mike
stood and walked noiselessly to the door. Then he switched on his flashlight
and opened the door carefully.

Mike
shone his flashlight up and down the landing and then returned to the room,
closing the door behind him.

“I
thought I heard footsteps,” Mike said.

“But
no one’s there?” Rachel asked.

“No
one I can see at least,” Mike said.

He
sat down again.

“So
why didn’t Justin want anyone to know that he was coming over here?” Rachel
asked.

Mike
cast Rachel a furtive glance. “Well, he didn’t want you to know because he
thought you would think it was silly. And he didn’t want me to know because I would
have told him it was way too dangerous.”

“What?”
Rachel asked. “Filming a ghost-hunting show?”

“No,”
Mike said. “Justin changed his mind after he realized what was going on here.
He wasn’t planning a show anymore. He was planning a rescue mission.”

“Keep
your voice down,” he hissed. “We’ve got to keep a low profile while we’re in
this house.”

“Don’t
we want Justin to know we’re here?” Rachel asked.

“Justin,
yes,” Mike said. “The spirits—no. The word is that spirits are luring people
here and trapping them—possibly so that they can use their energy to manifest
themselves.”

“Okay,”
Rachel said, rising. “We have different opinions, but we both think Justin is
here somewhere. Since we’re already at the top of the house, I’m going to
search each room from top to bottom until I find my brother. You can come with
me if you like.”

Rachel
switched on her flashlight and moved toward the door. Mike quickly went after
her.

“Yeah,
you’re right. We should find Justin. But let’s be careful. So far the spirits
don’t seem to be too aware of our presence. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“So
we’ll be careful,” Rachel said. “It makes sense to be careful in an old house
anyway.”

She
reached out for the antique crystal knob but was startled to see that it was
turning on its own. A moment later, the door was flung wide open, and a man
with white hair and a red birthmark that ran from his chin to his neck stood
outlined in the doorway.

“What
are you kids doing in here?”

Both
Rachel and Mike jumped back, startled.

“Who
are you?” Rachel said.

“Who
am I?” the man sputtered. “I’m the caretaker. Who are you?”

“We’re—”
Rachel began.

“We
saw the light,” Mike said quickly, gesturing to the lantern, “and since it’s
Halloween, we thought we’d come up and see what’s going on.”

“Well,
there’s no party up here,” the man said.

“We
thought the house was abandoned,” Rachel said. “We didn’t know anybody was
still taking care of it.”

“Sorry
we intruded,” Mike said, edging around the man. “We’ll be going now.”

“Wait,”
Rachel said. “We’re looking for—”

“Some
Halloween fun,” Mike said. “And this clearly isn’t the place for it.”

He
grabbed Rachel by the hand and pulled her around the man and out onto the
landing.

The
man said nothing and simply glared at them.

“We
have our own flashlights,” Mike said. “So we don’t need you to escort us down
the stairs or anything. We’ll just show ourselves out.”

Justin
flipped on his flashlight and dragged Rachel toward the stairs.

“I
already have my flashlight on,” Rachel said.

“We
can use both of them,” Mike said quickly. “Good night,
Mister-whatever-your-name-is.”

Rachel
glanced over her shoulder. The door to the attic was already shut.

“Come
on,” Mike said, tugging on Rachel’s hand. “Let’s get out of here while we still
can.”

“We
haven’t found Justin yet,” Rachel protested.

“We’ll—uh—we’ll
look for him outside,” Mike said.

He
continued to hurry down the stairs, and Rachel focused on trying to light his
way so he didn’t stumble in the dark.

Soon
they had made it all the way down to the ground floor. And then they were out
of the house and running across the porch and down the stairs.

Mike
threw himself against his car, which was now parked next to Rachel’s, and
leaned against it, panting.

“What
was that all about?” Rachel asked as she joined him. “Why didn’t you want to
ask that guy about Justin?”

Mike
took in several big gulps of air and then seemed to calm down. “I don’t know.
The guy just gave me a weird feeling. And he’s a caretaker in a house that
doesn’t actually have a caretaker. It just seemed to me that whatever’s going
on he must be in on it.”

“Oh,”
Rachel said. “I thought maybe you thought he was a ghost.”

Mike’s
eyes widened, and he turned to stare at her.

“He
wasn’t a ghost, Mike,” Rachel said. “He opened the door. I don’t think ghosts
can do that.”

“Yeah,”
Mike said. “That’s a good point.”

“Besides,
how do you know the house doesn’t have a caretaker?”

“Everybody
knows the house is abandoned. The Green family left, and nobody owns that
place.”

“How
do you know someone didn’t quietly buy it?” Rachel asked.

Mike
shook his head. “There’s no one to buy it from. Anyone who is staying at that
house is actually a squatter.”

He
cast a glance up at the light that still burned in the attic.

“Whoever
that guy is we definitely can’t trust him.”

“That’s
not going to help us find Justin,” Rachel said.

“I
know.” Mike rubbed his hands over his face. “I just—don’t know what to do at
the moment.”

“What
about this spirit portal?” Rachel asked.

“What
about it?”

“Where
does it lead? Does it go inside the house? Or somewhere nearby? If we find
where the spirit portal is, we’ll have a starting point for where Justin went.”

Mike
perked up. “Yeah—that’s a good idea.”

He
smirked a little. “So you’re saying you believe in spirit portals now?”

“No,”
Rachel said. “But I assume Justin did. For all I know, he just ran like crazy
until he got here. But if he thought
he was arriving at a spirit portal, and that’s a place we can go, then that’s
good enough for me.”

Mike
looked at her for a moment. “Skeptical yet open-minded. Interesting.”

Rachel
looked back at him, and his gaze left her feeling a little light-headed.

She
quickly looked back toward the house. “So do you know where the spirit portal
is?”

Mike
looked toward the house also. “I believe it’s in there. One of the earliest
investigators uploaded video of their arrival. They were in a big, empty
room—so they were definitely inside. But it was night, and the only light came
from their equipment.”

“You
couldn’t tell what room it was?” Rachel asked.

“No,”
Mike said. “But I don’t think it was in the attic—we were in there long enough,
and I didn’t see any sign of it.”

“So
we’ll have to search the whole house?”

“Afraid
so.”

As
they looked up at the house, the light in the attic went out.

“And
that just made our job a little more difficult,” Mike said.*You can read Part 3 here.*

2 comments:

Love the detail. "Old-fashioned crystal doorknob" - you must have visited houses from this era. I like that Rachel isn't going to swallow everything right away, but Mike sure knows a lot so I guess she'll learn more, too. Thanks for the first 2 parts :)